Oct. 4, 2012

Written by

Anticipation built up over the past nine months peaked Thursday when CSU’s governing board voted unanimously to move the on-campus stadium project forward.

The nod of approval from the System Board of Governors doesn’t definitively mean a new football stadium will appear on the Fort Collins campus in by fall 2015, as suggested in proposed plans. Instead, the 15-member board authorized President Tony Frank to start a two-year fundraising endeavor that’s success will determine whether CSU should put shovels in the ground.

In line with Frank’s goal, the board’s approval came with the condition of raising “more than” half the stadium’s proposed $246 million cost by October 2014. At that time, Frank will give a recommendation to the board on how to proceed.

“At the end of the two-year period, we should be able to take a very hard serious look at this and say we believe we’re ready to make this happen,” Frank told the governors, seated in front of a couple of dozen people in the Lory Student Center’s Cherokee Park Ballroom. “If we’re not close to making that happen at that point in time, then I think we have to ask ourselves some very difficult questions about the viability of the project, and that relates as well to Hughes Stadium.”

If Frank and the board chose to move ahead with the project, board members would look at what type of bonding the CSU system would incur and the debt service that would match up with revenues at that point in time, Chair Joseph Zimlich said. Frank said debt service wouldn’t exceed donations.

He’s been a steadfast proponent of building a stadium that he believes will promote CSU’s brand recognition and deliver “top of mind awareness,” helping to attract new students and higher-caliber athletes. This could mean bringing in thousands of out-of-state students whose tuition payments could help offset diminishing higher education funds, he told the Board of Governors at a meeting in August.

(Page 2 of 3)

Debate continued at meeting

Though there are supporters in the community, not one person spoke in favor of the proposed on-campus football stadium during the Thursday’s governing board meeting.

During public commentary, more than a dozen CSU faculty members, students and Fort Collins residents urged board members to vote down Frank’s conditional approval of the project.

“Turn a soft yes into a hard no,” said Bob Vangermeersch, leader of Save Our Stadium Hughes and an opponent of the on-campus stadium project told board members. “We are depending on you.”

Opponents laid out a long list of concerns related to building the proposed 43,000-seat stadium.

There’s the potential for noise, pollution, traffic snarls and parking challenges, they said.

And there’s the proposed $10 million move of the Plant Environmental Research Center — from Lake Street to an area along Centre Avenue — which students said is home to one of the “last” pieces of agricultural land on campus.

Others reiterated the long-talked-about philosophical debate about the importance of athletics versus academics, and others still brought up qualms over financing.

Though Frank has said he doesn’t want money from taxpayers, students or the university general fund to pay for the stadium, Vangermeersch and others allege potential payments on services paid on debt will fall onto unwitting shoulders.

While “sympathetic” to the qualms of more than a dozen CSU faculty and students, and Fort Collins residents who turned out Thursday to speak against the stadium’s construction, Board of Governors member Ed Haselden said he views the stadium issue through the lens of what’s best for the financial health of the university system.

He was in favor of tentatively moving forward the “single largest” financial decision in CSU’s history.

She added that she’d like to see the fundraising goal bumped up to 60 percent — or about $150 million — and asked him to clarify how building a stadium advances the academic mission at CSU.

(Page 3 of 3)

People will always argue this point, Frank said.

On one hand, not building a privately funded stadium would mean investing university general fund dollars into aging Hughes Stadium, which needs about $30 million in deferred maintenance and improvements.

Then there’s the debate about whether building a stadium could attract new students.

There’s not a “scientifically tested formula” Frank can use to determine by what degree student athletes would improve, thanks to a new stadium.

Nor would figuring out how many students a stadium would attract be an “easy thing to calculate out,” he said.

And while athletics are “a factor” in “getting people to understand your institution exists,” he said strength of academic programs and how a student feels on campus will determine whether they become a Ram.

Agreeing with Makepeace’s 60-percent charge, three-time alumna and board member Dorothy Horrell said she has faith in Frank’s leadership and choice.

“I will bet on you. I’ll bet on the jockey,” she said.

So what happens if CSU builds the stadium and isn’t able to push Rams football into the Bowl Championship Series, for example? Is the project a flop?

“Will this be a failure? No.” Graham told a group of reporters Thursday.

“We’re not doing this to get into a better conference,” he said, noting that he doesn’t intend for CSU to leave the Mountain West Conference but instead to turn the MWC into a “great conference.”

Winning more football games and bowl championships means CSU could be among the nation’s top-ranked teams. That’s what will make people aware of CSU and benefit not only the football team or athletics, but the entire campus — in all of its capacities, Graham said.